Fanfare at Luminaria

Today at Luminaria, the San Antonio Symphony will play a full orchestra arrangement of Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man. Coincidentally, today (March 12) is the anniversary of the world premiere of this work in 1943. The work was part of a project that commissioned 18 American composers as we entered WWII. Copland wrote in his autobiography, “Eugene Goossens, conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, had written to me at the end of August about an idea he wanted to put into action for the 1942-43 concert season. During World War I he had asked British composers for a fanfare to begin each orchestral concert. It had been so successful that he thought to repeat the procedure in World War II with American composers”.

The Symphony plays at 11 p.m. on Saturday. You can get the entire schedule at luminariasa.org. Here is a video of this famous fanfare, performed at the Prom’s in London. I like it played just a tad faster, but these are great brass players!